In 2018 I only grew one variety of watermelon Orange Glo. It's supposed to be a 100 - 120 day melon. I had ripe melons at 59 days from planting the seed. They were the sweetest melon I've ever tasted.
The melon patch consisted of 5 - 100 foot rows of earth bermed raised beds running from North to South with an inch of fall in 10 feet. Each raised bed was 7 feet wide (4 feet of bed with a flat 3 foot middle). Hills were 6 feet apart on the rows.
Monitor the soil temperature (use a meat thermometer) and when the soil reaches 60 degrees at 2 inches deep plant your seeds.
I have been using a product called Roots Biopack for 5 years to inoculate my seeds and plants and recommend it. To use it I fill a 2 liter plastic bottle about 3/4 full with water and use a small funnel to add a tablespoon of Roots Biopack. Shake well and top off with water. Use the drench within 3 hours. I have no financial interest in this company.
https://www.greenviewfertilizer.com/...x#.XGMRCGQzB8E
No commercial fertilizer or animal manures were used.
To plant a hill of mellons - start about 4 feet from the end of the row - use a hoe to remove soil so your seed will be an 1 - 1 1/2 inches deep when covered. Spread 4 seed out in the hill. Pour a 1/2 cup of the drench over the seed. Cover the seed with the soil you removed and tamp down with the flat side of the hoe. Move down the row 6 feet and repeat.
I use jigs (a piece of wood 1/4" x 1 1/2" x the length needed with a handle attached) and a tightline to put bamboo skewers where each hill will be. For this a 4' jig to start each row and a 6' jig for between each hill. Keep them out of the weather and they will last forever.
My soil was 61 degrees on May 1 so I planted.
After 3 or 4 days most of the seed should be breaking thru the soil.
When most of the melons have true leaves mix another bottle of drench and thin each hill to the strongest 2 plants, trying not to disturb the roots of the plants you are leaving (that's why you spread them out when planting). Pour a half cup of drench around each remaining plant and repeat at the next hill. Mix more drench as needed.
When the plants start to put out runners carefully hoe a 2 foot circle around each hill, just cutting the grass and weeds and using your hands to pull the grass and weeds you can't get with the hoe and use a weedeater on the remainder of the bed and middle (this allows the melons to become dominant). Repeat this when the runners are about 2 feet long. CAREFUL the runners have used their tendrils to attach themselves to anything available and it is easy to knock young melons off and break vines. Start by turning the runners toward the middles weedeating between the hills. Then turn the runners inline with the rows and weedeat the rest.
When you do this mowing you need to be sure you have your predator protection in place. As you mowed the melons you probably noticed some watermelons were larger. You should flag these melons so you can locate them in the patch later on. These melons will be the first to ripen and the sweet scent will attract the predators to the patch.
45 days from planting (June 15 in my case) you can expect to lose any unprotected fruit. In my case they ate over 50 of the largest and earliest. Heart breaking.
I covered 62 using Clothes baskets from Dollartree and needed 6 landscaping pins per basket to anchor them.
Harvest when the curlyque is dead all the way to the vine (when it has about a 1/4 inch of green it's about a week from ripe). and the belly is yellow and the skin is alligatored. This watermellon must ripen on the vine or it won't be fit to eat. Once ripe the melon will keep at room temperature for about 3 weeks. Refrigerate after cutting.
I don't know when the 50 I lost to critters would have been ripe or how much they would have weighed, the first melon I got to eat was ripe at 59 days June 29 and weighed 21 1/2 pounds. The average weight was 17 1/2 pounds.
After the first crop, the vines set a second crop and continued to bear until frost.
Oldman, PM your address and I,ll send you some seeds.
claud